HP ES was born from HP's 2008 $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS. But the unit has faced ongoing problems for years, with constant management turnover, shrinking revenues and layoffs. In August, HP wrote-off $8 billion in goodwill from the unit.

The Navy had originally hired EDS as its outsourcer and HP inherited the contract when it bought EDS. The Navy renewed its contract with HP in 2010, but soon after signing the deal, decided it wanted to end the relationship because it didn't want to rely on a single vendor, Wired reported at the time.

So HP had to put together a coalition of outsourcers and bid against a similar coalition led by CSC.